Strategic Planning

Joshua Novotney

As a political operative and staffer in Washington, DC, Joshua worked for Sens. Elizabeth Dole and John Ensign at the National Republican Senatorial Committee where he worked closely with the entire Senate GOP Caucus to raise money and organize political events in DC and nationally. In 2008, Joshua started working for Sen. Arlen Specter in Washington on his campaign staff and organized DC PAC events as well as PA based fundraisers. Later that year, Joshua ended up working with Pat Toomey, as his finance director and senior aide for the 2010 Senate campaign where he oversaw an $18m fundraising strategy which fueled the Senator’s victory.

After the campaign, Mr. Novotney was appointed by the Senator as a senior aide in charge of the Philadelphia, Allentown and Scranton offices from 2011 to 2013 in Sen. Toomey’s official office. He also held 1 of only 3 Political Fund Designations and continued as the Senator’s Finance Director. During his time in the official office, Joshua oversaw all issues affecting Eastern Pennsylvania that came through the Senator’s office (i.e. PHL expansion, Delaware River dredging, Federal Reserve briefings and local bank round tables on Dodd-Frank implementation, Jones Act issues, federal regulatory issues, fighting to keep open local refineries, Right-of-Way applications, unfunded federal mandates, etc.), was in charge of staffing the Senator in all of his official meetings in the region and helped oversee the process on federal judge appointments in the Eastern and Middle Districts of PA. He also acted as the representative for the Senator with the Congressional delegation at in-state meetings, events and press conferences when the Senator was unable to attend. Joshua also staffed the Senator for all of his NYC meetings due to his assignment on the Banking and Finance Com’ts. To date, Mr. Novotney is the only senior aide from Sen. Toomey’s office who has left the federal gov’t and entered the government relations industry.

Since leaving the Senator’s office, Mr. Novotney headed Gov. Tom Corbett’s Philadelphia region office and worked on many state level issues in the region pertaining to economic development, transportation funding, port expansion, education funding and the local shipyard. He sat on the full board and TIP sub-committee of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) on behalf of the Governor. He also acted as the Governor’s representative and liaison with many local elected officials in Southeastern PA and Lehigh Valley.

After leaving Governor Corbett’s office, Joshua has joined Arena Strategies to focus on federal government relations. He brings his strong personal knowledge of Senator Toomey’s office, as well as his relationships from working with Senator Casey and the PA Congressional Delegation Members and offices, to help develop a winning government relations strategy for Pennsylvania based clients. This coupled with his great understanding and experience of Pennsylvania and its companies, organizations and authorities makes Mr. Novotney an excellent addition to the Arena team.